Baby killer Lucy Letby will spend the rest of her life behind bars alongside some of the most dangerous female criminals in the UK’s history. Since her arrest in July 2018, Letby lived in four different prisons while awaiting her lengthy 10-month trial. Now she is incarcerated at a Category A Prison with a target allegedly on her head.
The Mirror took a look at the dark experiences the serial killer will be expected to have in prison. Letby is expected to be sent to either HMP Bronzefield in Surrey, where she has already served jail time, HMP New Hall in Yorkshire or HMP Low Newton in Durham. Experts believe Letby, 33, will be on suicide watch for several months before she’s allowed to mix with her fellow inmates. It is also suspected she will mostly interact with prison officers “through the hatch in her cell door.” It is “extremely unlikely” Letby will ever be granted the perks some inmates are allowed such as day release. This means that when the time comes, she will not be able to attend the funeral of her parents, Susan and Jonathan Letby, according to chartered security professional James Bore.
Speaking to the publication, the director of family consultancy Bores said: “Any day release for parents’ funerals, or anything else, would be based on a risk assessment. I find it extremely unlikely that any sort of temporary release would be granted – for her own safety as much as anything else. Currently, she’s being segregated within Low Newton, again to prevent her from being attacked. Social media rumours saying that she’s been attacked already are misinformation.”
It is also believed that Letby will have ‘restricted status’ for an inmate, which is considered the female equivalent of Category A – meaning she is the highest-risk threat to the public. “She’ll be what’s known as a ‘restricted status’ prisoner,” Mark Leech, a prisons expert and editor of The Prison Oracle website told the Telegraph. “She’ll be on suicide watch, and it will be some time before she gets to mingle with the main prison population – at least six months.” She may also receive extra care and attention if she is at HMP Low Newton, which boasts the ‘Primrose Project’ – designed to treat women with “dangerous and severe personality disorders.”
It is the only prison in the UK with such a unit. While Letby will be considered a threat to herself, she will be a possible target for others for the rest of her life. HMP Low Newton holds women aged 18 and as of April 2022, there were 242 prisoners living at the facility. It has housed a number of notorious criminals over the years including sadistic killer Joanna Dennehy, who brutally stabbed three men to death within a chilling 10-day murder spree in 2013. Serial killer Rose West is a current inmate at HMP New Hall in West Yorkshire but had a stint in Low Newton.”